Soul Photo Net -- Photoblog / Weblog

Friday, December 31, 2004

What is this “Radio” thing?

I like to listen to NPR. It saves me time from watching the daily slaughterfest that is shown on the news television stations.

I just got out of the shower and heard a really nice instrumental piece during the NPR show “Day To Day”. I heard lots of good music on the show. the music HAS to be good when only 5 miutes or less of music is played in an hour program. I like music.

Anyway, the nice piece I heard was Hip-Hop rhythmed. I love it when the public radio station plays Hip-Hop during the show’s intermission. It feels to me like subtle brain-washing is taking place to those people that claim to dislike or even hate Hip-Hop music. Anyway NPR is a a wonderful thing. I’ll probably donate in 2005.

This song I heard was really mellow stuff. I thought that if I rush and get on the computer I could search the NPR website and find the show and then find the names of the songs and artist’s whose music is played during the intermissions. I sat down in the “lab” and started searching. I started up iTunes so that I wouldn’t miss anymore cool music. Being the polite person that I am, I informed my daughter who was in the same room that I was going to play some music. She wanted to know what I was ging to play and I said, “I’m going to play the radio.” I don’t have a radio in the lab. It is just my office, Cisco lab, computer room. The only RF transmitter is the cordless phone on my desk. I have no radio in the lab.

So I ask you, “What is this “Radio” thing” that I mentioned to my daughter that doesn’t come from the airwaves, but from the computer on my desk?

KUUMBA

Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah) is the sixth day of Kwanzaa, and it means “creativity”.
On this day, we pledge several things. We pledge to do whatever
we can to make our communities and homes more beautiful
and better than we found them. We also pledge to use our creative
talents and energies to improve young minds and hearts.

Thursday, December 30, 2004

NIA

Nia (NEE-ah) is the fifth day of Kwanzaa and it means “purpose”. On this day,
we pledge to build and develop our communities, our schools and our families.
We also pledge to provide a strong communal foundation from which our children
can develop into strong and productive people.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

UJAMAA

Ujamaa (OOH-jah mah) means cooperative economics and is the fourth day
of Kwanzaa. On this day of Kwanzaa, we pledge to develop our own businesses
and to support them, to maintain shops, stores and industry that contribute to
the well-being of our community and to drive out businesses (boycott, etc.) that take
FROM our communities and give nothing back.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

wine and vicodin

LOS ANGELES - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero who gained fame with routines about drugs and dirty words, said Monday he was undergoing treatment for excessive use of alcohol and prescription painkillers.

ìIím going into rehab because I use too much wine and Vicodin,î Carlin, 67, whose latest book ìWhen Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?î is a national bestseller, said in a statement. îNo one told me I needed this; I recognized the problem and took the step myself.î

The announcement came weeks after the veteran stand-up comic caused a stir at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a performance that questioned the intellect of people who visit the resort city.

According to media accounts of the incident, Carlinís bit about ìmoronicî Vegas tourists touched off a bitter, profane exchange with members of the audience, including one woman who shouted ìStop degrading us.î

Carlin has acknowledged having battled cocaine addiction in the 1980s but said he quit on his own by tapering off the drug. He also has suffered three heart attacks.

Speaking of his current problem, he said: ìMy levels of use are nowhere near the worst you hear about these days; I could easily have continued functioning at a good level ... for awhile. But my use would have progressed, I would have been in deeper trouble, and I didnít want to tolerate that.î

Carlinís spokesman, Jeff Abraham, said the comedian entered rehab on Monday but did not know how long he would remain in treatment. He said Carlin was currently scheduled to begin a new engagement at Stardust Hotel in Vegas in February.

Carlin, long known for provocative material that puts his audiences on edge, achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven dirty words you could not say on television. A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of his ìFilthy Wordsî routine ultimately reached the Supreme Court.

UJIMA

Ujima (ooh-GEE-mah) is the third day of Kwanzaa and means “collective work
and responsibility”. On this day we celebrate working together in the community to
help others. For Ujima, we pledge to rebuild our communities and to help our people
solve our own problems by working together to do it.

Monday, December 27, 2004

Stupid Europeans.

Today is “KUJICHAGULIA”, the second day of Kwanzaa

Kujichagulia (koo-gee-cha-goo-LEE-ah) means self-determination and is the second day of Kwanzaa. On this day, we pledge to define ourselves, to NAME ourselves, to create for ourselves, and to speak for ourselves, instead of being defined, named by, created for and spoken for by others. On this day we design for ourselves a positive future and then vow to make that prophecy—that DREAM—a self-fulfilling one.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Twas The Night Before Christmas - A Dogs Poem

T’was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
With no thought of the dog filling their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Knew he was cold, but didn’t care about that.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Figuring the dog was free of his chain and into the trash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave! ave the luster of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But Santa Clause with eyes full of tears.
He unchained the dog, once so lively and quick,
Last years Christmas present, now painfully thin and sick…
More rapid than eagles he called the dogs name.
And the dog ran to him, despite all his pain;
“Now, DASHER, Now, DANCER, Now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET, On CUPID, On, DONDER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Let’s find this dog a home where he’ll be loved by all.
I knew in an instant there would be no gifts this year,
For Santa Claus had made one thing quite clear,
The gift of a dog is not just for the season,
We had gotten the pup for all the wrong reasons.
In our haste to think of a gift for the kids,
There was one important thing that we missed.
A dog should be family, and cared for the same.
You don’t give a gift, then put it on a chain.
And I heard him exclaim as he rode out of sight,
“You weren’t given a gift! You were given a life!”

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Hotmail sucks.

Well, it used to. It still does only because it seems to be one of the domains of choice for spammers forging emails.

For this reason, several months ago I enabled a filter on my ISP email address to filter out email from the Hotmail domain.

I still maintain a Hotmail account only because I’ve had it for many years now and they have increased their storage space.

I rarely, if ever, use it to send email. I use it as the registration email when I need to register on a web forum.

If you send an email from Hotmail to my ISP email address, you will likely receive a bounce.

I also have a “bone to pick” with those of you that still forward emails to all of your friends and family.

If you feel it is absolutely necessary to forward an email of dubious authenticity/necessity, please do the world a favor and place everyon’e email address in the ‘bcc’ field. This way when the absurdly long email list is delivered to a SPAM bot, they will not be able to harvest email addresses to previously unknown addresses. This way you can do your friends a favor by keeping their address somewhat private.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Posted: 9:21 PM EST (0221 GMT)
DALLAS, Texas (AP)—Near the end of her short life, Shayla Stewart, a diagnosed manic-depressive and schizophrenic, assaulted police officers and was arrested for attacking a fellow customer at a Denton Wal-Mart where she had a prescription for anti-psychotic medication.

Given all those signs, her parents say, another Wal-Mart just seven miles away should have never sold her the shotgun she used to kill herself at age 24 in 2003.

Her mother, Lavern Bracy, is suing the world’s biggest store chain for $25 million, saying clerks should have known about her daughter’s illness or done more to find out.